The Eastern States Championship Meet brings in top athletes from mid-Atlantic and northeastern states. The 80th annual meet featured meet records and, in several events, top times in the United States in the current indoor season. Sachem North attended the meet to run fast and jump far.
Sunja Joseph became the first Sachem North athlete to ever medal at Eastern States when she placed fourth in triple jump. Sunja’s series showed four fouls in her six jumps. Sunja was very fast on the Armory’s runway.
Adjustments were made to ensure that she got a measured jump on her final jump in trials, but a decision was made to go for it and not play it safe. Both of Sunja’s measured jumps were over 37 feet. Sunja placed fourth in the event.
Shortly after Sunja completed triple jump, Sachem’s 4×200 meter relay took to the track in the semi-final round of the event. Alyssa Leto, Melissa Michels, Nikki Fogarty and Kelly Gardner qualified for finals in a school record time of 1:44.55 – a full second faster than the record they set at State Quals two weeks earlier.
The new record lasted less than one hour. The quartet broke the record again as they placed fifth in finals. Their time of 1:44.16 is Suffolk County’s fastest time of the season to date and is New York State’s No. 7 time.
Relay anchor Kelly Gardner had a second reason to celebrate at Eastern States. Kelly ran a career-best 7.71 in the preliminary round of the 55 meter dash earlier in the meet. Both relay splits were season-bests for Kelly. Kelly’s 26.1 anchor in finals was a career-best for both indoor and outdoor track.
Sunja Joseph, Alyssa Leto, Nikki Fogarty and Katie Michta will represent Sachem North at the NYS Indoor Track & Field Championship held at Cornell University next Saturday.